you don't go and make a home for yourself somewhere. I know that you hate
all the things I do, and care for, and all my friends. Why don't you go
away? It would be more comfortable for both of us!"

"I have no wish to go away," the girl said, softly, "and I don't think
that we interfere with one another very much, do we? This is the first
time I have ever made a remark about any--of your friends. To-night I
cannot help it. Sir Leslie Borrowdean is Mr. Mannering's enemy. I am sure
of it! That is why I do not like the idea of your going out with him. It
doesn't seem to be right--and I am afraid."

"Afraid! You little idiot!"

"Sir Leslie Borrowdean is a very clever man," the girl said. "He is a
very clever man, and he has been a lawyer. That sort of person knows how
to ask questions--to--find out things."

"Rubbish!" the woman remarked, sitting up on the couch. "Why do you try
to make me so uncomfortable, Hester? Sir Leslie may be very clever, but
I am not exactly a fool myself."

She spoke confidently, but under the delicate coating of rouge her cheeks
had whitened.

"Besides," she continued, "Sir Leslie has never even mentioned Mr.
Mannering's name in anything except the most casual way. You don't
understand everything, Hester. Of course Lena and Billy Aswell and Rothe
and all of them are all right, but they are just a little--well, you
would call it fast, and it does one good to be seen with a different set
sometimes. Sir Leslie Borrowdean and his friends are altogether